The Route 66 Chick

Here it is - our tentative conference schedule! MILES OF POSSIBILITY : THE EDWARDSVILLE ROUTE 66 CONFERENCE Thursday-Saturday, October 29-31, 2015 Wildey Theatre, Edwardsville, IL Sponsored by the Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor Coalition Hosted by the City of Edwardsville TENTATIVE SCHEDULE Thursday, October 29 12:00 noon – 6:00 pm Registration, packets/goody bags/info available – Wildey lobby Afternoon -  Edwardsville Historic Districts tours – by City of Edwardsville  Historic Preservation Commission Wildey Theatre tours – by Joan Evers , Wildey Theatre historian Evening -  Route 66 Pub Crawl – Stagger Inn, Springer's Creek Winery, Hi-Way Tavern, a couple newer Main Street establishments Friday, October 30 8:00 – 10:00 am Registration, pick up packets/goody bags/info – Wildey lobby 9:00 – 9:15 am Welcome – Wildey auditorium – Mayor Hal Patton 9:00 am Author Book Store/Artist & Col...

“ Miles of Possibility: The Edwardsville Route 66 Conference” EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, TO HOST MAJOR ROUTE 66 EVENT IN 2015 The City of Edwardsville, through its consultant/advisor, Edwardsville Preservation Commissioner and author Cheryl Eichar Jett, has announced that it will host a Route 66 Conference on Halloween weekend 2015 at the city's beautifully-restored arts venue, the historic Wildey Theatre on N. Main Street, just off Route 66. Edwardsville's annual tradition of the Halloween Parade, established in 1924, will celebrate the legendary highway with a Route 66-themed parade that weekend. Planning for the event has already garnered major endorsement. The conference is being supported by the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway organization, led by William Kelly, and the National Park Service Route 66 Heritage Corridor Program, coordinated by Kaisa Barthuli. by the City of Edwardsville, the primary venue for the conference is the beautiy-restorhistoric Wilde...

No, you haven't stumbled onto one of those home- and office-organization blogs with cute names. But it really hit me on New Year's Day - it's 2015 now and this is the year of the inaugural Blue Carpet Corridor event (June) and the Edwardsville Route 66 Conference (October). So I've been keeping my nose to the grindstone (or my shoulder to the wheel, whichever trite expression you dislike the least) so far in January. A quote attributed to A. A. Milne is, "Organizing is something you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." Well, I don't want either event to be mixed up, so this month I've stirred up a whirlwind of spreadsheets, lists, three-ring binders, emails, meetings, one-on-ones, letters, and phone calls with the intent of creating two great events. And now there's a dedicated conference phone line and a Twitter account.  So here's the scoop on what's new with the events. Just a reminder, the ina...

My new favorite quote - "Sometimes the wheel turns slowly, but it turns." - Lorne Michaels. For those of you waiting for Edwardsville Route 66 Conference news, it must seem like a very slow wheel. But take my word for it, we are making progress. Here are my updates: 1.  We are working out a few final details to be able to announce a partnership between the City of Edwardsville and a sponsoring organization. As soon as this is done we will have a webpage and a phone number. We are also waiting on the Edwardsville - Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce to finish hammering out their "complimentary-themed" 2015 Halloween Parade theme and title. 2.  The current go-to place for information on Edwardsville and updates on the conference itself is our new Route 66 Edwardsville Facebook page! Please "like" our page at  http://www.facebook.com/Route66Edwardsville , please share it liberally, and do visit it often for conference updates, local Route 66 history, and inf...

After several hits to our Blue Carpet Corridor organization, including one sad and tragic one, we have re-organized and are once again making progress. And after some slow-downs, brainstorming, and meetings, the Edwardsville Route 66 Conference has definitely picked up steam.  As for the Blue Carpet Corridor Coalition, first we lost our vice-president (but thankfully just to an extremely busy schedule and other projects). Then on September 22, Stan Barker, our president, leader, and friend, passed away. We vowed that all that Stan worked for would not be lost and we redoubled our efforts to re-organize and move forward with BCC plans. To that end, after some gentle arm-twisting, I traded in my secretary hat for the president's hat. Dave Tucker of Taylor's Mexican Chili in Carlinville (check out their story at  http://www.taylorschili.com ) more than stepped up to the plate and now serves as our very active vice-president.  Suzanne Gray of Virden as secretary and Gl...

With a meeting this morning gathering officials from the City of Edwardsville, a representative from the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce, and yours truly, planning meetings for the 2015 Edwardsville Route 66 Conference have begun in earnest! Some details were hammered out, other aspects of the event came under discussion, great ideas were put forth for evaluation, and a planning structure was put in place to move forward with the event. At last we have definite dates and days to announce and thus a framework on which to hang the conference and the social events!  For those wishing to begin making their travel plans, please note that the Edwardsville Route 66 Conference will be Thursday afternoon - Saturday evening, October 29 - 31, 2015. The Wildey Theatre is confirmed as the venue, although there is discussion of an additional venue for activities. The host hotels in Edwardsville should be announced next week! And rest assured, there is PLENTY of lodging in ...

A week of R&R at my daughter and son-in-law's in Albuquerque was just what I needed - love, laughter, catching up, dogs, cats, movies, a small stack of books to read, green chile and other great food, some antiquing and thrifting, a walk at the Bosque. I also had to finish up my monthly column for the Prairie Land Buzz  and take care of no small quantity of communications and phone time for the 2015 Edwardsville Route 66 Conference. My announcement of the Edwardsville conference at the closing of the Kingman Festival seemed to release a flood of opinions, frustrations, ideas, suggestions, and complaints on social media about the status in general of Route 66 events, event planning, event sanctioning, event travel, event timing, and other related topics. I see the Edwardsville conference as a sort of hybrid event. We in Edwardsville are probably not going to fix any perceived wrongs in the system, except in terms of offering up a forum for open, constructive, pertinent, and ho...

Route 66 is just about bookended by amazing historic theaters - the Rialto in Joliet and the  sadly-deteriorated Rialto in Pasadena. And all along the route are sprinkled grand bastions of the early 1900s entertainment industry such as the KiMo in Albuquerque, the Coleman in Miami (Miam-uh), and the Wildey in Edwardsville, all three of which are restored, open, and operating. In the interest of fostering some positive interest in the 2015 Edwardsville Route 66 Conference, I'd like to introduce you to the Wildey Theatre at 252 N. Main Street. The City of Edwardsville (owner of the Wildey) has committed our star venue for the conference weekend Halloween weekend 2015. By the way, the Wildey stood just a half-block from the earliest Route 66 alignment through the city. When the route was moved to its main alignment through town, that added another block. Wildey Theatre photo by Cindy Reinhardt. The Wildey was constructed in 1909 via a partnership between the Independent...

In regards to the Edwardsville, Illinois, Halloween weekend 2015 conference, following are the facts so far that are confirmed with either the City of Edwardsville or other appropriate organization. Everything else is unconfirmed, speculation, rumor, idea, or in the works but cannot be confirmed. This doesn't mean other plans and ideas will not happen. This is simply all that is confirmed at this point. I am in close contact with a number of people and organizations regarding the conference, most importantly the City of Edwardsville, for whom I am a volunteer consultant for the conference. (I also serve the City of Edwardsville in an official capacity as a commissioner on the Historic Preservation Commission.) FACT #1 - The City of Edwardsville has committed to sponsoring and hosting a Route 66 conference with speakers and workshops on Halloween Weekend 2015. FACT #2 - The City of Edwardsville will utilize its beautifully-restored Wildey Theatre, built in 1909 and now used...